YMMV / Riverside Extras

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • How much does Ophelia care for her friends and about empowering vulnerable women, and how much does she care about getting power for herself?
  • What are Ophelia's true feelings for Simon? Is it pity, romantic love, lust, or something else?
  • Is Derry a good, loving friend to Ophelia, or a clueless rich white girl who doesn't understand Ophelia at all? Does Derry deserve to be punished for her cluelessness when Ophelia has gone out of her way to conceal her past and vulnerabilities from Derry?
  • Is Ophelia's growing antipathy towards Cynthia irrational and mean, or an understandable reaction to Cynthia not protecting her from Ma Oceana's racism? How does Cynthia feel about Ophelia, and how willingly does she go along with Oceana's racist treatment of Ophelia? How much clout does Cynthia even have with Oceana?
  • Is Cynthia a good choice for Ma Oceana's successor, or would Ophelia, overlooked due to Oceana's racism, be a better choice? Is Cynthia too underconfident to face off against Simon-and-Smith, or does the terrorist who blew up an office building have hidden grit?
  • Was Simon's outburst at Derry for going along with Ma Oceana humiliating Ophelia by forcing her to act as a maidservant during a Rose-Ink parley a righteous callout, or was he ignoring his own blindspots with respect to Ophelia's experiences with racism, or just a dick move based on his apparent dislike of Derry?
  • Was Siobhan's decision to protect Amos Pyrate, himself no saint, from Ink associates a noble or foolish move?
• Archive Binge: A mild case, at 558 pages as of this edit.
• Ho Yay:
  • Siobhan and Lucy. In "No Man's Land", Siobhan is assigned to protect Lucy on an opium run. Lucy expresses disgust at having to do an assignment with newbie Siobhan, but quickly changes their tune to squeeing fanbying when Siobhan mentions she punched out Ophelia Banksly. Halfway to their destination they're sharing an umbrella and Lucy is inviting Siobhan to come to their place sometime. Later, when the assignment goes wrong and they have to hide out together in a Rose safehouse, they end up sleeping against each other's shoulders. Ophelia comments on the dynamic when she comments that she was expecting Lucy to be "leading Siobhan by the ascot".
  • Ophelia and Derry are very good friends, although Word of God is that Derry is straight. Character Overlap with Never Satisfied allows them to apparently go on a date in that webcomic.
  • Bianca Masters shows potential attraction to Ophelia here after she walks in on Ophelia and Timothy Kreider. Confirmed one-sidedly when Ophelia tells Bianca she needs better taste in women, and then gives her The Big Damn Kiss. Word of God is that Bianca is a lesbian.
  • Out of context, Bianca and Nancy Goldfinch having coffee together and Bianca telling Nancy her life changed when she saw her seems pretty gay. In context, it's about Bianca seeing Nancy, a woman higher up in Ink management, being protected from sexual harassment, and deciding to apply for a higher position in the Ink so she can get away from the men at the casino tables. Bianca having an admiration crush on Nancy isn't implausible, however.
  • The rivalry between Bianca and Meredith Baxter for the position of Jefferson's PA mildly turns into this when the two of them separately forge an emotional connection with Ophelia, a Rose, and then they're both hired as co-PAs, removing the need for them to compete with each other.
  • Even though Word of God is that Jefferson is straight, Simon (who is bi) and Jefferson roughhouse a little intensely in a few early panels, and later chapters suggest a rivalry between Jefferson and Ophelia over Simon. The rivalry is primarily about Simon's torn loyalties between the Ink and Ophelia, but whether it's more personal on Jefferson's part is left open to interpretation.
  • Lucy towards Cynthia. Lucy blushes when Cynthia touches their shoulder, and when they say Cynthia's name it's written in the talk bubble in cursive. They also act very worshipful of Ophelia, though Ophelia seems to think it's largely brownnosing.
• Stoic Woobie: Ophelia, Siobhan.
• Woobie:
  • Ophelia is mistreated for being black by the Roses, and mistreated for being a black woman by the Ink. She conceals her past from her loved ones, but from the (probably whipping) scars on her back, her dissociating during sex, and her implied abusive relationship with Simon's unseen brother, it was probably absolutely horrific.
  • Siobhan was born poor in Kiev. She never mentions any family or loved ones. She's mistreated for being a tall, unfeminine woman with a funny accent, rejected as a bodyguard at the Ink because the organization is too sexist, and before the Roses hired her, she was living in a shitty apartment with only a bottle for company.
  • Meredith Baxter, when she gets her fingers cut off, and in "Jack of Spades" when she learns that Ophelia didn't kill her father, and her idolized father was a sexist, racist Jerkass.
  • Bianca Masters. She first applied for a job at the Bolero not knowing it was an Ink establishment. After constant sexual harassment from working the tables, she applied to be Jefferson Smith's PA, hoping that being higher up in the hierarchy would keep her safe...only to end up witnessing what happens to Meredith. She tries to find solidarity with Meredith, but Meredith hates her because they're competing for the same PA job. And on top of everything else, Bianca's got a crush on Ophelia.
  • Derry, when she realizes that she's been an Accomplice by Inaction to Ophelia in "Queenside", and Simon lies and says her father didn't ask after her.